Chapter 45
DIMITRIOS
‘I’ll give you two some space,’ said Carrie, and she got up, gave Drago a smile and headed indoors.
Why would anyone smile at the man who’d caused Dimitrios’s family so much grief?
Could Carrie see something he didn’t?
Drago walked over. He set the carrier down and a large meow drowned out the Debussy melody being played. Dimitrios gave a gasp as a walnut tail with a white tip pressed against the wired door.
‘Poseidon?’ he said in a rough voice. He opened the door and lifted the cat out and buried his face in her fur.
Immediately she purred and licked his cheek.
He looked up, Poseidon happily jumping down onto his lap where she settled for best head scratchies that only Dimitrios delivered.
Her fur was shiny and groomed, her body a good weight.
‘How?’ he asked, a lump in his throat. He’d resigned himself to never seeing his surfing companion again. ‘You should know that Ajax is inside,’ he said, speaking in English on purpose. Speaking in Greek? No, far too friendly – too much like old times.
Drago sat down and gave a big sigh. ‘I understand if you want to press charges.’
‘Why did you take her?’
‘I was angry, about the narrative that you’d set up… of me being responsible for your dad’s accident. The scowls villagers gave me, even friends…’
‘You don’t believe you’re to blame?’ asked Dimitrios in a raised voice. What had happened to his former best friend?
Drago took a moment. ‘I’d gone to confront you but saw Poseidon outside, being sick.
You know me and animals… My first thought was anger.
I thought to myself that with your jet-setting lifestyle, you didn’t have the time to care for her properly.
So I put her in my rucksack. Took her home. Monitored her for a few days.’
‘She’d have just eaten a mouse,’ Dimitrios snapped.
Drago clenched his hands together. ‘I’m afraid not.
I took her to the vet’s in the end and my concerns were confirmed – animal health is still a big interest of mine.
She’s got kidney problems.’ He reached into his rucksack and pulled out a plastic bag.
He handed it over. ‘I’ve been feeding her specially formulated food and she’s on medication. All the details are in there for you.’
What? Dimitrios grimaced to himself. Poor Poseidon. How could he have missed that?
‘Have you kept her inside? I put posters up everywhere.’
‘At the beginning, but not in the last week or two. She kept looking out of the window.’ He exhaled again. ‘I’m sorry, Dimitrios, for… for everything. I don’t know how it’s come to this between us.’
‘Simple. It’s down to you being a dick. Hadn’t you any idea how dangerous it would be to reveal my details to the press?’
‘It was a spur of the moment thing… it wasn’t malicious… I had no idea you’d be hounded on this little island, literally in the middle of nowhere. But I’m not responsible for your dad, Dimitrios. It was an accident.’
‘You tell yourself that,’ he sneered.
‘You don’t think I felt guilty at first? I loved your dad when I was younger. He was great to me as a kid. Even now, if our paths cross, he always smiles and nods.’
He did?
‘Markos was always a fair man and one of the most decent I’ve ever known.’
‘Well, he’s more forgiving than me,’ Dimitrios muttered.
Drago held his hands in the air. ‘Remember Theo in our class? We were about nine and we took his new pencil case for a laugh the first day of school, because he went over the top guarding it and his new pens?’
Dimitrios shrugged.
‘The next day he came in with a black eye. We gave him the case back. We realised it was his bullying dad who’d done it, blaming him for losing the case, even if the stupid teachers believed Theo’s story that he’d fallen over.
We felt guilty but, looking back now, you see, right, it wasn’t our fault?
We never knew that would happen – the fault lay with his father, like your dad’s accident was caused by that fan in the car. ’
‘What happened to you at high school?’ Dimitrios asked, avoiding addressing Drago’s comment. Theo had often come in with bruises. It had taken a whole year before the teachers squeezed the truth out of him.
‘Helios,’ he said simply. Dimitrios raised an eyebrow, so Drago told him everything he’d told Carrie.
She brought them out coffee and cake whilst Drago talked, and then went back inside. Poseidon slept happily on Dimitrios’s lap. Minutes, an hour, longer passed. The cake remained uneaten; once he’d started talking, Drago couldn’t stop.
‘My parents despaired over my behaviour and we were always fighting,’ said Drago.
‘They stopped my pocket money, grounded me, took away my screens. None of it made any difference. I wanted to change, really I did, but Helios’s grip felt overwhelming.
And despite the way he was, the violence, the threats, I didn’t want to end up on my own. ’
Dimitrios’s mind whirred. At primary school, he and Drago had stood up for each other.
A prick of something unpleasant scratched his conscience.
Drago had taken a punch for him once. They were so excited, both having been given a Tamagotchi for Christmas.
A group of older boys in the playground cornered them at lunch break to grab the toys.
Drago stood in front of Dimitrios and held out his arms to protect his friend.
Then there was the time they both liked the same girl.
She gave Dimitrios a Christmas card, not Drago.
But he acted pleased for his friend, even told him things to say to girls that he genuinely reckoned would be cool, like ‘your shoes are awesome’, ‘wanna play football?’, ‘let’s see how many worms we can find to leave out for the birds’.
Dimitrios almost smiled at the memory. That girl soon lost interest.
‘I regret giving up on my dream of becoming a vet,’ mumbled Drago. He gave a sad smile. ‘But most of all I regret losing the best friend I ever had.’
‘Best friend? But you’ve been so resentful of my success,’ said Dimitrios.
‘I’ve never begrudged you that,’ he said quietly. ‘Problem is, it holds a mirror up to me not achieving my goals. And… if I’m honest, I’ve not been jealous of you, but of so many other people being in your life when I threw it all away. We had fun together, right?’
Dimitrios didn’t speak. He’d had no idea about Helios…
Flashbacks began to make sense now… how, in their teens, Drago often appeared miserable when hanging out with the swaggering gang; how his ambitious friend’s grades sank; how the boys he’d hung out with then never got in trouble once Helios left.
Drago got up to leave.
‘Thanks for bringing Poseidon back. I won’t be pressing charges,’ said Dimitrios.
He put the cat back in the carrier and stood up and went over to Drago.
‘I’m not sure we can ever… Dad… it’s cut me to the core…
But, well… I’m grateful for you bringing Poseidon back to good health.
’ He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘It’s never too late to chase your dreams, to change your day-to-day.
Look at Carrie, giving up her whole life and moving to Paros.
Maybe you should go back to college? It’s a long time until retirement age.
You might as well do something you enjoy. ’